Cheesy low-carb ham and cauliflower casserole is the ultimate low-carb comfort food. I created the recipe to use up leftover ham, but I liked it so much that I'll be buying ham steaks specifically to make it.
When I was in the fifth grade, I was in a recipe contest with the other girls in my Girl Scout troop. I remember that my recipe was a casserole with ham and a cream sauce, and I remember that it had both potatoes and water chestnuts in it. I remember that because one of the judges thought that the water chestnuts were undercooked potatoes.
Anyway, since my mom passed away several years ago, I have no one to ask for the recipe from that Girl Scout contest.
I was thinking of that casserole though, when I decided to put this recipe together.
After Christmas dinner, we had almost 15 pounds of ham to use up. Joe packaged a lot of it in 1-pound bags, but we still had two tubs full of it in the fridge. I ate a lot but I was getting tired of plain old ham for every meal.
Enter this recipe.
We had intended to eat roasted cauliflower for Christmas Eve dinner, and we forgot to cook it, so there were almost two full heads in the refrigerator. I put the two things together with some various cheeses and creamy bits and this recipe was born.
This ham and cauliflower casserole does take a bit of time to prepare because you have to first roast the cauliflower and then bake the casserole. For that reason, I don't think it's a good candidate for a weeknight meal, although it does reheat very nicely, so you could easily make it on the weekend and just heat it up during the week.
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Cheesy Low-Carb Ham and Cauliflower Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 ½ heads cauliflower about 10 cups of chopped cauliflower
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin, optional
- 16 ounces low-fat cream cheese
- 2 cups Greek yogurt or sour cream Greek yogurt has fewer carbs, less fat, and fewer calories, typically.
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- ⅔ cup Parmesan cheese grated, not the powdery kind but the slivered kind
- 6 cups diced ham
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese any cheddar blend will be nice. I had a 2 cup bag of pizza cheese which was a blend of sharp cheddar and mozzarella, but any cheese will be terrific.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425.
- Chop the cauliflower into slightly larger than bite-sized pieces. You should remove the core and the leaves but can include the thinner, more tender stalks. Place the cut cauliflower in a 9x13 baking dish.
- At this point, you can toss the cauliflower in olive oil to keep it from getting dry in the roasting process. It's not 100% necessary. I didn't do it and the final dish came out very nicely anyway, even though the roasted cauliflower did look pretty dry in the intermediate step.
- Roast the cauliflower for 45 minutes or until the florets are just starting to become tender. Don't overcook.
- While the cauliflower is roasting, prepare the cheese mixture.
- Soften the cream cheese by microwaving the two blocks on a plate or in a large bowl for one minute.
- Combine the softened cream cheese with Greek yogurt, garlic powder, onion powder, and Parmesan cheese. You can taste it at this point. Prepare for awesomeness.
- When the cauliflower is tender, remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 350.
- Add the ham to the cauliflower in the baking dish. Pour the cheese mixture over the top and then mix it all together right there in the baking dish.
- Sprinkle the shredded cheddar over the mixed up cauliflower, ham, and cream cheese mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the mixture is bubbly.
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